The Cross

Quoting Walter Kasper:

On the cross the incarnation of God reaches its true meaning and purpose.  The entire Christ-event must therefore be understood in terms of the cross.  On the cross God's self-renouncing love is embodied with ultimate radical-ness.  The cross is the utmost that is possible to God in his self-surrendering love; it is "that than which a greater cannot be thought"; it is the unsurpassable self-definition of God.  This self-renunciation or emptying is therefore not a self-abandonment and not a self-de-divinization of God...but the revelation of the divine God...God need not strip himself of his omnipotence t be able to surrender oneself and give oneself away;  and it requires omnipotence to be able to take oneself back in the giving and to preserve the independence and freedom of the recipient.  Only an almighty love can give itself wholly to the other and be a helpless love." 

-Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, translation Mathhew J. O'Connell (NY: Crossroad).

The power of divine Love is shown in the powerlessness of the cross  - Ilia Delio


Evolution bears witness to the fidelity of divine love because every cosmic death is, in some way, transformed into new life. -Delio

The very act of creation reflects something of a 'divine crucifixion,'  for in creation God reveals his power to be his unconditional love for the world...The cross reveals the to us the heart of God because it reveals the vulnerability of God's love. - Hans Urs von Balthasar 

repost from fb notes.  

Our Lives Will Be Demanded from Us!

Then Jesus told this  parable: “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.  He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.  There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

Yesterday, I gave a talk on ecology to about seventy people – teachers and staff in one of the big universities here in Baguio.  Preparing for the talk, two songs of the famous Filipino band, Asin, played in my head, “Masdan Mo Ang Mga Bata” and “Kapaligiran”.  I did not quite know how to connect these ideas to come up with a concrete outline of my talk.  I just kept listening to the words of the song, until I even heard Nora humming the song, “Masdan….” Then something clicked, I will present a proposal ---being educators of the young to help young people think and critique the mainstream culture of consumption, accumulation and instant gratification using a paradigm of compassion, peace and respect for nature.  Using the questions that Papa Francisco prayed about during the WYD, I asked them to look deeply into their vocation as educators of young to focus on the same questions:  1. How to give the youth a legacy worthy of  human life?  2. How to awaken in the youth their greatest potential as builders of their own destiny? And 3. How to invite the youth to share responsibility for the future of everyone?   And then, I went on to give a lecture on the ecological perspective.
Somehow, reading the scripture passage above, it made sense to me how Jesus addressed the human greed.  His parable describes, in my opinion, the present economic system of non-stop development.  The key question here is, “when to de-growth” before, a catastrophic death of the Earth’s life-support system “will be demanded from us.”  I was reading an article yesterday about “environmentalist must redefine “progress”.  Why pass the bucket?  Each of us has the responsibility of redefining progress.  For us, Christians, Jesus is saying “life will be demanded from those who store up treasures for themselves, but not spiritual riches.”  The choice is upon us! Choose life!  Feliz dia de la Pachamama!

(reposting from fb notes) series 2013.